Catalogue description Wednesbury Folk Singers

This record is held by Birmingham: Archives, Heritage and Photography Service

Details of MS 4000/5/1/4
Reference: MS 4000/5/1/4
Title: Wednesbury Folk Singers
Held by: Birmingham: Archives, Heritage and Photography Service, not available at The National Archives
Language: English
Administrative / biographical background:

The town of Wednesbury, Staffordshire lies 8 miles north of Birmingham and is one of the great iron towns of the Black Country, the manufacturing district of South Staffordshire. The recordings of the Wednesbury Folk Singers comprise interviews with people from the area talking about their background, childhood, working lives and singing traditional songs. The people interviewed were as follows:

 

Mrs Emily Mary Turner (b.1888) of Wednesbury

 

Harold Fletcher (b.1895) of Wednesbury

 

William Loach (born 2 March 1882) of Bradley, Burton

 

Arthur James of Wednesbury

 

Tom Hadley (b.1910) of Wednesbury

 

Ken Williams of Wednesbury

 

Bill Hawker of West Bromwich

 

Edward James Smith [b.1872] of Kingswinford

 

John Baker (b.1909) of Bilston

 

Percy Gregory of Wednesfield

 

The interviews were all conducted by Charles Parker who was particularly interested in the local dialect and customs and traditional songs sung at work and play. Some of the interviews were also conducted by John Fletcher one of the founders of the Black Country Society and son of Harold Fletcher who was interviewed himself at MS 4000/5/1/4/4-6. The recordings cover a wide variety of topics including the Irish in Wednesbury (MS 4000 5/1/4/1,4,10,14); traditional singing (MS 4000/5/1/4/1,7,11); wakes (MS 4000 5/1/4/1,5,11); politics (MS 4000/5/1/4/2,6); mining (MS 4000/5/1/4/17-19,21,23); children's games (MS 4000/5/1/4/3,6); iron industry

 

(MS 4000/5/1/4/7,9-10) and local customs (MS 4000/5/1/4/13-14,20). The last two tapes in the sequence address the issues of squatting and the travelling community (MS 4000/5/1/4/22-23)

 

arrangement: The tapes are arranged as follows:

 

MS 4000/5/1/4/1-4 Interviews of Mrs Emily Mary Turner Jul. 1963

 

about childhood, entertainment, politics,

 

employment, local customs and singing Jul. 1963

 

MS 4000/5/1/4/4-6 Interviews of Harold Fletcher re background,

 

children's games, travellers, Irish people

 

MS 4000/5/1/4/7-10 Interviews of William Loach singing traditional Jul. 1963

 

songs and talking about his background and children's

 

games

 

MS 4000/5/1/4/11-16 Interviews [in a public house] of Arthur James, Jul. 1963

 

Tom Hadley, Ken Williams and Bill Hawker about

 

their working lives, children's games, local

 

customs, anecdotes

 

MS 4000/5/1/4/17-21 Interviews of Edward James Smith about childhood Jul. 1963

 

and working in the mines

 

MS 4000/5/1/4/22 Interview of John Baker talking about his life as Sep. 1963

 

a squatter

 

MS 4000/5/1/4/23 Interview of Percy Gregory talking about children's Sep. 1963

 

games, songs and travellers

Have you found an error with this catalogue description?

Help with your research